Unclaimed Dividend and Market Value of Listed Firms in Nigeria Stock Exchange

Abstract

The study examined the unclaimed dividend and market value of listed firms in Nigerian stock exchange using data covering the period 2010 to 2019. Thus, the data gathered were analyzed using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller of unit root test for the stationarity of the data and autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration technique. The result reveals that unclaimed dividends have a negative and significant long-run effect on the market price per share of listed firms in Nigeria, that there is no significant short-run effect of unclaimed dividends on the market price per share of listed firms in Nigeria, that unclaimed dividends have no significant long-run effect on a price-earnings ratio of listed firms in Nigeria and that unclaimed dividends have a positive and significant long-run effect on earnings per share of listed firms in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others that companies should make alternative arrangements for the provision of cash and short-term fund in case unclaimed dividends are transferred to a separate account, as this will enable the management to henceforth present a true and fair statement of their business operations to stakeholders.

Keywords: Earnings per share, price/earnings ratio, market price/share, unclaimed dividend